1/From Press Conference earlier today:
Faith and Community Leaders Send Letter to @NYGovCuomo calling for an End Family Separation & the Signing of the New #SCARAct
2/Almost two years ago in response to the Trump Administration's "Zero Tolerance Policy" that marked the tragic beginning of ongoing immigrant family separations in this country,
#SCARAct
3/advocates and activists have sent a letter with 340 signatures to Governor Cuomo calling for the signing of S222-C @NYSenBenjamin / A1436-C @HarveyforNY #FamiliesBelongTogether
4/ #SCARAct was overwhelmingly passed in both houses as a response to the Trump administration’s policy of separating refugee children and parents at the border and sending the children into the nation’s foster care system — including in NYS.
5/“When Trump’s federal government sent separated children to our state and my district, I knew we had to act, and so we introduced the SCAR Act. 👇🏾
6/This new version of this bill, which will ensure that separated children are not forgotten or lost, passed both houses of the legislature this year, and is the result of the work of many of the faith and community leaders who are gathered here today. 👇🏾
7/I am proud to join them today in support of this bill becoming law,” said bill sponsor @NYSenBenjamin #SCARAct
8/“Since day one of his candidacy, Trump has waged war on immigrants. As president he has empowered ICE to separate children from their families at the border, dispersing children around the country, 👇🏾
9/forcing states like New York to pick up the pieces by having these children in our state foster care system. Once released from federal custody, many of them remain in New York. 👇🏾
10/This year, the legislature stood up to Trump’s cruel policies and rejected his attempts to conceal the effects of his family separation policy. #SCARAct 👇🏾
11/With the passage of our bill, we are shedding light on our foster care system and ensuring that we have the data we need to support our separated children as well as families around New York State,” said bill sponsor @HarveyforNY
12/“Every day, we hear more stories about the Trump Administration's dishonesty and lies as they continue to separate children from their parents and imprison them in cages. 👇🏾
13/We now know that hundreds of immigrant children have been held in black-ops hotels with no oversight, and even as this has become common knowledge, the practice has continued. 👇🏾
14/These policies terrorize parents and children and stand against every one of our moral, humane and scriptural beliefs. #FamiliesBelongTogether
15/This bill, the #SCARAct, will allow the government of New York State and our communities to have the information we need to keep families together and to fight the cruel heartlessness of this Administration." Ravi Ragbir, ED, New Sanctuary Coalition.
16/"For a long time, my children, my husband and I were separated. ICE took my husband prisoner in front of my children. They incarcerated him for two and a half years. This caused deep trauma to my family such that we had to seek therapy in order to continue moving ahead.👇🏾
17/ It was a very difficult time, but today, thanks to God and with the help of New Sanctuary Coalition, my husband is with us again. 👇🏾
18/As a mother, I put myself in the place of families that feel desperate not knowing anything about the whereabouts of their children, with great uncertainty &the immense pain that brings a trauma to our children that will forever mark their lives,” Jauna Santana, NSC member
19/“Since the current Administration's inhumane "zero tolerance" policy of 2018 that separated immigrant children from their families in large numbers at the Mexican--👇🏾
20/US border and sent them to foster agencies in NYS and around the country, Governor Cuomo has joined faith and community leaders across New York State to express his outrage. #FamiliesBelongTogether
21/We call on @NYGovCuomo now, as diverse faith leaders & NYers of conscience to sign the New #SCARAct
22/allows NYS to shine a light on this inhumane practice that, while not official federal policy, still sends unaccompanied & separated children to state foster care agencies,” said the Rev. Dr. Chloe Breyer, Executive Director, @ICNY of New York. #SCARAct
23/“The #SCARAct is NY State’s best-faith effort to combat the federal government’s cruel, continued family separation policy. We need @NYGovCuomo enthusiastic signature today. 👇🏾
24/And as @NYGovCuomo signs, NYS offers a template for the rest of the 49 states to show that none of us will be a haven to cruelty. #SCARAct #FamiliesBelongTogether 👇🏾
25/We call on every state to bring transparency and accountability to the way we care for the precious children who continue to be ripped from the people who love and care for them,” said @KajiDousa, @ThePark1010 and @NewSanctuaryNYC #SCARAct
26/“For nearly 120 years, the @thenyjl has been fiercely committed to safeguarding the well-being of our city’s children,” said New York Junior League President Dayna Barlow Cassidy. 👇🏾
27/We support the #SCARAct because it requires more consistent reporting about the separated, immigrant children in the custody of the state’s foster care agencies. 👇🏾
28/As a community of advocates, policy makers, and service providers, we have a sacred responsibility to these children, and with more reliable information, we can better protect them.”
29/Edward Hayes, President &CEO of the @CayugaCenters, one of the state’s largest foster care providers, said at the press conference that his organization supports #SCARAct 👇🏾
30/#SCRAct is crafted in a way that encourages transparency without jeopardizing important federal contracts that allow his organization to continue their work.
31/According to @splcenter the Trump administration continues to separate families at the border, two years after claiming that they have stopped the practice.
32/Dr. Hazel Dukes of the @NAACP NAACP decried this action at the press conference, and said that in addition to signing onto to the joint letter, her organization would be sending its own letter urging the @NYGovCuomo to sign the bill. #FamiliesBelongTogether #SCARAct
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